Michelle Obama

Apparently, we can look forward to seeing Jedis on the runway this fall. [T-Magazine]

Baltimore’s City Paper spotted Pussy Riot in Baltimore, shooting for the next season of House of Cards. [City Paper]

A well of linkage here from Carolina Miranda on the history of a largely-unseen 1992 war photo of an Iraqi man burnt to a crisp trying to escape his truck on the “Highway of Death”. She couches it in the history of painting and photography, shows that war photos are an essential piece in art, and that “there’s something a little weird about a culture that revels in…the blood-spurting, limb-chopping, brain-eating horror of “The Walking Dead” but can’t handle it when a dead guy shows up on the news.” The essay reminds me of the final scene in John Berger’s “Ways of Seeing”, which argues that in placing ads next to stories of war “one can only say this culture is mad.” [The LA Times]

Here’s proof that, for two days, a secret noise festival happened in a basement in the Rockaways. “At the Burning Fleshtival, ‘Hey, man, can you help me out?’ really means ‘Hey, man, check this rock chained around my balls for me?’” Marina Galperina chronicles Burning Fleshtival. [Animal New York]

The Washington Post profiles Save the Corcoran, a group of students, staff, and faculty who have filed a lawsuit as a last-ditch effort to stop the Corcoran’s merger with the National Gallery of Art and George Washington University. (The story runs with a very, very, very, very, very dramatic photo of the group). If the deal goes ahead, then the National Gallery would take the collection– dissolving one of the oldest museums in the country– and George Washington University would absorb the art school. The judge will rule on August 20th. [The Washington Post]

If you’re having trouble understanding why a merger would be such a disaster, then read Philip Kennicott’s very convincing argument against it. He makes this sound like another Cooper Union case, of a willfully neglectful board that will be rewarded for failing the institution they’ve been appointed to protect. [The Washington Post]

Two German artists have taken responsibility for those white flags that replaced the American ones on top of the Brooklyn Bridge. They attribute the project only as a celebration of “the beauty of public space” and the German-born engineer John Roebling, who designed the bridge. [New York Times]

A Fox News pundit suggested that we shouldn’t be taking nutritional advice from Michelle Obama, because the First Lady “needs to drop a few.” [Politico]

Film noir actress Lauren Bacall has died. She was awesome at playing a bitch. The Hairpin has pulled some choice quotes from her Vanity Fair profile, like “I wasn’t put on earth to be liked.” Can the Internet please give us more people like this? [The Hairpin, Vanity Fair]

The Frick made an app to “engage with youth.” Should we expect video tours of the collection with rappers next? [ARTnews]

The National Portrait Gallery has installed a photo of Robin Williams. Also, Artnet news has a story about how Williams agreed to play the genie in Aladdin, as long as his voice wouldn’t be used to sell merchandising. Disney obviously violated that agreement, so they gave him a Picasso self-portrait as an apology. But the painting didn’t go with anything in the house. [Artnet]

The Met is displaying all 17 of its van Goghs for the first time in a decade, and in response, Peter Schjedahl has written about how he learned to love the crowd-pleasing painter. “What makes van Gogh so magnetic? Picasso nailed it: “The drama of the man,” he said.” [The New Yorker]

A 21 year old guy kicked a cat, really hard, and caught it on video. Now he’s been arrested. Good. Poor kitty! [ANIMAL New York]

Marianne Boesky is opening a new space on Clinton Street in the Lower East Side, just ahead of the new condo wave. There goes the whole, entire neighborhood. [Bowery Boogie]

As we reported yesterday, the Rent Guidelines Board voted on whether or not to consider a rent freeze on rent-regulated apartments, while tenants yelled at the owners on the board. They came out with a compromise, a 0-3% increase for apartments with a one year lease and a .5 to 4.5 increase for 2 year leases and a 0-10 percent allowance for subletters. Following votes will determine the outcome. [Paddy Johnson, WNYC]

Speaking of protests, the Village Voice has photos from last night’s rally for Occupy protester Cecily McMillan, who faces up to seven years in prison for elbowing a police officer. She says it was an accident and has photo documentation of bruising from that police officer. [Village Voice]

The Met costume center named after Anna Wintour officially opened last night with an introduction from Michelle Obama. [The New York Times]

Who are the most expensive female women artists? Artnet tells you. (I would not have guessed Beatriz Milhazes at number 9). [Artnet]

There is now an LIC Art Bus, that will transport art lovers between Socrates Sculpture Park, The Noguchi Museum, SculptureCenter, and MoMA PS1. [Hyperallergic]

Artforum’s profile on the Greek-born American sculptor Chryssa ends on a rather strange note. “One day in her studio, I noticed a gun. She pointed to it and said she was planning to shoot [Arnold] Glimcher. Sure she was being mistreated and ignored in New York, she shut her studio on lower Broadway for good and apparently returned to Athens.” Chryssa died earlier this year in Greece. (Above: Chryssa’s “Large Bird Shape.” Courtesy Albright-Knox Art Gallery.) [Artforum via Andrew Russeth]

“If elected president, Barack Obama plans to prioritize, well, barring broadband providers like AT&T and Comcast from prioritizing Internet content.” That was in 2007. With news this week that the F.C.C. is considering “fast lanes” for commercial providers, let’s hope that he keeps to his promise. [CNET via Reddit]

Next week, the Frieze Art Fair will come to New York yet again; talks will include a keynote by UbuWeb founder Kenneth Goldsmith and a roundtable between Maria Alyokhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova of Pussy Riot and David Remnick of the New Yorker. We’re sure these talks will fill up quickly—their lecture hall is pretty tiny. [Frieze via Artsbeat]

Bill de Blasio has not yet addressed his promise to stop the Central Library Plan, and instead he’s kept $151 million in the budget for the renovation. Very fishy. [Bloomberg News]

Artspace provides their own rankings system for “10 of the Most Influential MFA Programs in the World.” Not sure if they talked to anyone at the School of the Art Institute (where Corinna went for grad school); their excerpt focuses on their MA program in Visual and Critical Studies, not an MFA program. Thankfully, Artspace lists off the ridiculous amount you’ll pay in tuition by enrolling in any of these programs: Bard costs $55,000 per year; Columbia costs 51,676; and UCLA sounds like a bargain at $23,465 for out-of-state residents. Sigh. [Artspace]

More on the ongoing battle between hedge funder and activist shareholder Daniel Loeb and the storied auction house Sotheby’s. Loeb has nominated three director candidates and now advisory firm Institutional Shareholder Services recommended that shareholders vote for two of the three board nominees he has proposed, one of them being Loeb himself. [New York Times]

Hyperallergic has partnered with London’s Lost Lectures. Tonight, The Awl co-founder and blogger Choire Sicha will talk along with Photographer Barbara Nitke, street performers Flex (is King) + Deirdre Schoo and scientist Marc Abrahams. Should be an interesting night. [Hyperallergic]

At a White House event for kids, a 10-year-old girl hands Michelle Obama her dad’s resume, and says he’s been out of work for three years. [NPR]

London’s Victoria & Albert Museum just made a pile of money. They’ve confirmed rumors that they are getting the blockbuster Alexander McQueen show. [Artnet]

Kriston Capps continues his coverage on Washington, D.C.’s Corcoran Gallery of Art and College of Art and Design. On April 7, the museum’s board, along with the boards of the National Gallery of Art and George Washington University were supposed to vote on how the Corcoran will be absorbed into these other two institutions. That deadline was skipped. [City Paper]

Time’s “100 Most Important People” is out. Sheikha al-Mayassa Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani has been dubbed “important” because she’s really rich, collects lots of art, and will make some of it available for view to the public. The piece was written by Takashi Murakami, who barely speaks English. Looks like the magazine found a translator. The other bullshit art entry is Marina Abramovic, with a write up by James Franco. Barack Obama does the write up for Pope Francis but also gets his own entry. [TIME]

Sotheby’s expects pre-tax loss of $6 million for first quarter 2014, an improvement on $32 million loss for first quarter 213. Where exactly are they losing money? The press release doesn’t say. [Benzinga]

Say goodbye to net neutrality. The F.C.C. has shifted its position and now supports an Internet with fast lanes and slow lines for web traffic. You can expect more from us on this today. [The New York Times]

Chelsea real-estate woes continue, this time on 26th Street. Tony Shafrazi, Lehmann Maupin, and Stephen Haller will lose their entire building to developers who plan to bulldoze it in order to make a “130,000-square-foot commercial, office, community facility space.” [Gallerist]

Bushwick will get a new art fair, the NEWD Art Show, at 592 Johnson Avenue. It’s set to run May 30 – June 1. [Hyperallergic]

Yes! Now we can watch untold hours of British newsreels, thanks to the archive British Pathé, which has uploaded its entire archive of 85,000 films on YouTube. The featured video is of Arnold Schwarzenegger winning the Mr. Universe contest. [YouTube, h/t The Baffler]

Is Detroit “the new Brooklyn”? ArtINFO interviews Jane Shulak, the founder of the Culture Lab Detroit Conference, a summit on building Detroit’s cultural industry. [BLOUIN ArtINFO]

Three years after getting assaulted by police, OWS protestor and journalist has gotten a $55,000 settlement from the city. [ANIMAL]

Omg! The Andy Warhol Museum has uncovered new Warhols, which were made on the Amiga computer program, and to this point trapped on floppy disks. They have been liberated. Here’s a video of him painting Debbie Harry. [The Warhol Museuml]

Even more mystery art has been unearthed. A “virtually unknown portrait” by Gustav Klimt will be unveiled in May. Alas, “The identity of the sitter remains a mystery.” [The Art Newspaper]

People (Liam Neeson) are losing their shit over Bill de Blasio’s campaign to ban horsedrawn carriages. The anti-carriage people think that it’s inhumane to keep horses in the city; the pro-carriage people say that horse carriages are already under tons of scrutiny and don’t want the industry to die. De Blasio wants to replace the carriages with electric cars, but apparently this alternative had failed in San Francisco. [WNYC]

The New York Times Editorial Board observes that Mayor Bill de Blasio has little to show for his first four months, but has made welcome promises to deal with the lagging Sandy recovery. Of the $1.45 billion in federal funds that has been allocated for post-Sandy rebuilding, only $380 million has been spent. There is much to do. [The New York Times]

PETA is angry at Michelle Obama for using real eggs in the Easter Egg Roll. [The Root]

Chelsea Clinton announced she’s pregnant. USA Today weighed in saying, “It’s unclear how Chelsea’s pregnancy will affect Hillary Clinton, who is considering a race for president in 2016”, prompting rage around the web about the sexist undertones of the statement. It’s a weird comment probably stuck in as a means of attaching a small news story to a larger one. It’s horseracing and in 2016 Chelsea’s baby will be royality giving Hillary Clinton a grandma likeability boost. [USA Today via: The Li.st]

Why do people check into Facebook. It’s no longer clear, says Jenna Wortham. [The New York Times]

The Party Monster, a.k.a. Michael Alig, has been holed up in prison for 17 years, but according to this interview, he’s been able to Tweet from prison by dictating 140-character sayings over the phone to his book editor. Then she manually tweets them. [The Daily Beast]

Another ridiculous op-ed from Taki’s Magazine, the aggressively bigoted society magazine created by the wealthy Greek journalist Taki Theodoracopulos. (We heard about him four months ago from this “cage match” throwdown that never happened with Charles Saatchi). “Modern feminism has become fascism and it’s making women miserable.” I hate this magazine. [Taki’s Magazine]